


give me a hand o'thine

by glacecherie



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M, New Year's Eve, Softness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-25 22:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13222476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glacecherie/pseuds/glacecherie
Summary: Mitch gets his NYE kiss, even if it is a bit late.





	1. Chapter 1

When Mitch sneaks off from the NYE party just before midnight, he doesn't expect to be noticed, let alone followed. He just...needs a moment.

The clock striking twelve is always an event, what with the kissing and drinks and all the rest, and Mitch just. Doesn't feel it tonight. He doesn't want to stand around like a wet blanket though, so he grabs a flute of champagne and excuses himself to go and sprawl in one of Willy's guest bedrooms.

It's not so bad - pining - he reasons. He's still Auston's best friend, and despite the few times they've hooked up, things aren't awkward between them. They're still best bros and he'd still like. Do anything in the world to maintain that, even if it does make him wistful and soppy sometimes. 

When he hears the countdown happen, something twinges in his chest, but that's beside the point. He's had a good year. Hard, but okay in the end.

Besides, he was getting tired anyway. At least now he has a good view of the fireworks through the window. It's snowing, too, great big flakes tumbling down. All the more picturesque.

He's so lost in his thoughts that he doesn't notice someone come in until they plonk down next to him and Mitch nearly leaps out of his skin with a yelp.

Matts just laughs at him. He's not drunk (he gets sleepy when he is) but he's tipsy. His hair is a mess and there's colour in his cheeks. Mitch sits on his hand so that he doesn't reach up to brush it away.

Auston clinks their glasses together.

"Hey, I was looking all over for you." He says, voice oddly soft. Downstairs, someone has put on one of those old cheesy soul records that are only ever played as a thinly veiled excuse to slow dance.

"Oh?" 

He tries to cover how hopeful he sounds, but even to his own ears it's a poor attempt.

"Yeah. Couldn't think of anyone I'd rather be with at the stroke of twelve y'know."

Auston is looking at him intently, and Mitch can't bring himself to return his gaze, so he laughs awkwardly.

"There's no accounting for taste, huh? Guess you're gonna have to wait another year though, Matts. You missed me this time."

"I miss you most of the time anyway, so -"

He flinches, because suddenly this feels too much like a fucking romcom.

"You're drunk."

Auston takes a deep breath and downs the rest of his drink.

"Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't alter the fact I wanted to kiss you, though."

Mitch gapes. 

"You-?"

"Wanted to kiss you. Like, a lot. Had to settle for Willy smooching my cheek. It was kinda gross."

Mitch just stares.

"Only if you want to!" Auston barrels on, maybe self concious now. "I just thought with how this year has gone and how we -"

"Fucked?"

"-yes, that...I just thought maybe there was something there. Maybe. I'm sorry if I was wro-"

"You're not! I promise you're not I just...I was up here feeling so sorry for myself. This is a big switch around, you know?"

Matts nods, then takes their glasses and puts them on the bedside table, and Mitch can't take his eyes off him. Everything outside of them seems muted somehow, from the light in the room to the vibration he feels though the floor. He can barely breathe for fear it'll break the spell.

He makes a small sound when Auston cups his jaw, clenching his eyes shut for a second.

"Can I?" He says, like there's a universe in which Mitch would say no. Like that would happen in a million years.

He nods, not trusting his voice, and then - 

Auston leans in, one hand running through his hair, the other against the small of his back, and kisses him senseless.

It isn't frantic or hurried. Just soft brushes of their mouths, foreheads together, until Mitch shivers from the intensity and Auston clenches his hand in the back of mitch's shirt with shaky fingers. 

When he opens his eyes, Mitch feels flayed by how intense he looks. How earnest.

"Worth the wait?" He says weakly, giving Auston a final chance to play it off as a joke. 

Auston wipes his thumbs under Mitch's eyes. If anyone asks, he wasn't crying. New year just makes him emotional. 

The soul song is still playing but in there, in the tiny pocket of time they've hollowed out just for them, it may as well be silent. 

He leans in again and presses his lips to the corner of Mitch's own. It's too tender, and it almost hurts. Almost.

"Worth it." He answers at last, and Mitch doesn't object when Auston intertwines their fingers and holds on.

 


	2. Morning after the night before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/1/2018, 6am.

Mitch wakes up slow and far too early. It's 6am when he checks his phone, and usually he'd be pissed about being pulled from sleep when he doesnt even have anything to do,  but -

Not this time.

There's a brief couple of seconds of disbelief before he's hit with what happened last night and his stomach swoops.

Just the memory of the kiss makes him grin so wide his cheeks hurt. A bit of him wants to whoop with the sheer joy of it, but he's not that much of a dumbass. Moments like this need to be savoured, and besides, he doesn't actually want to wake up too much.

Behind him Auston shifts in his sleep, arm curling tighter around his waist and nose tucking into the nape of his neck. 

He's so warm. Auston puts out heat like a furnace, even if he does complain about Toronto weather to no end. He feels so soft like this. Looking at him, you'd be hard pressed to think anything about him was delicate, but somehow there is. The curl of his fingers around Mitch's forearm, the imprint of his lips again the topmost notch Mitch's spine, the way he's wrapped around him, not conciously being protective but protective nonetheless.

It makes Mitch's heart squeeze. He shouldn't have waited so long for this.

Then again, maybe if he'd have said something sooner, it would have been too soon.

Maybe the timing was just right.

Them, drawing closer and closer - never able to move from each other's orbit - until in this very room, in the first minutes of 2018, they finally had each other. Kissing properly in the burnished half light cast by the tacky christmas decor, snow insulating them.

Like they were the only two people. 

The earth didn't move. It was more a realisation of _oh, there you are. This is how it's going to be._

God, he's far too philosophical and mushy for 06.07 in the morning. 

He takes a deep breath and - although he's not superstitious - reaches out to quietly knock on the wood of the bedframe, just to be on the safe side.

He snuggles back, basking in the safe feeling that comes with sharing sleep with someone, thinking of how he gets to have this now, this gentleness. 

Then he doesn't think at all, and lets himself drift off again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just could leave this be huh. Sorry again.
> 
> (I am however a firm believer in sharing a bed with somsome being one of the most tender things you can do.)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading, and happy new year!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm aware this is tooth rotting. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.


End file.
